Inauguration conflicts with student schedules

Today is a memorable day in MIT history: It is the Inauguration of our
new president, Charles M. Vest. For students, this is probably their only
opportunity to see such an event during their stay at MIT.

The Inaugural Committee organized the Johnson Games and other events to
bring the MIT community together for this auspicious occasion indicating
that they had a sincere desire to bring students, staff and faculty into
the festivities.

However, while students were invited to attend the Inauguration itself,
it was scheduled at a most inconvenient time for them to participate. The
second-to-last day of classes and the due date of theses seems an ironic
time for our new president to be installed.

This shortsightedness of the Inaugural Committee is an indication that
the administration is not as in touch with the student community as they
believe they are. Any true attempt to bring the entire MIT community
together must take into account the schedules of students.

While it is impossible to schedule an event that will accommodate
everyone, obvious errors, like scheduling during the last week of classes,
need to be avoided.

While we appreciate the tremendous effort put into the organization of
the Inauguration, we hope that in the future the administration will
consider student life before planning such important events.